I know where I was on 9-11 and I don't need anyone to tell me how, why or even to remember it.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

I remember the sick realization of "We're being fucking attacked" as I watched the 2nd tower get hit.

I remember banking services hobbled.

I remember the fear of anthrax in every piece of mail.

I remember those ridiculous pop-ups across America making money off of flag pins and flag magnets from China.

I remember the rush to war against a country that had nothing to do with the attack.

I remember thinking "What about the fucking Saudis?"

I don't need 24-7 reporting telling me how fucking noble I am for watching death and destruction 20 years ago on xyz network.


It was a fucking tragedy not a patriotic event.



/end rant

[USALiberal]

1. Who tried to "tell you"???

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Gee, I don't know. Have you tuned in to just about any live programming today?

[USALiberal]

3. Yes, but didn't feel attacked. Nt

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

4. Nor did I.

I did however feel like the date now is being painted with something that has more in common with things not real.

[KarenS]

5. I am disgusted by all the coverage on this day. Tried to watch the evening news,,,,

and gave up. I don't want to 'go back' or to remember,,,, It was a fucking tragedy. Now hugely politicized like everything else.
Let's talk about all the deaths from covid all the isolation from covid,,,,

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

6. Preaching to the choir...

[ShazzieB]

42. I feel the same way!

Considered posting about it but was too afraid of the possible blowback and chickened out. I'm really glad somebody finally broached the subject.

[Skittles]

7. the prospect of seeing assholes like Dubya and Rice kept me away

fuck them

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

9. I made the mistake of watching for a bit

and the remembrance of Bush and company's reactions just pissed me off again and reminded me of how many additional American lives were lost to the horrendous agenda set by Rumsfeld and Cheney.

[Skittles]

37. I cannot stand seeing Duers opining that Trump made Dubya look better

it's as if they forgot about 9/11 and two fucking senseless wars

[tiredtoo]

8. We are experiencing 9/11 death rates every two days

Thanks to the anti- maskers and vaxxers. How about a day spent on that?

[greatauntoftriplets]

10. I've avoided watching the annual grief-a-thon for the last 19 years.

There's something pathetic about all the self indulgence. And there are people who seem to actually enjoy it all.

[Alice Kramden]

12. Exactly - same here

And I deplore the ones capitalizing on that grief for ratings and pseudo-patriotic gains

[sheshe2]

31. I refused to watch.

I didn't turn the TV on until 3pm and that was to watch a Netflix movie or three. Never once turned on the news.

I hear ya, gaot.

[ShazzieB]

43. Me, too, sheshe.

The only thing I turned the TV on for today was to watch some shows I had previously recorded.

[Hoyt]

11. Don't want to see planes, collapsing buildings, smoke, etc., anymore. Have been struck

by interviews with families and children 20 years later. ABC had a good special called something like “The Women of 9/11.”

Mostly went hiking and played my mandola and guitar today. But, it was good to see families on TV directly impacted by 9/11 living again.

Thank gawd we didn’t have to see TFG today.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

13. Just realizing that many that died in retribution for this event weren't even born at the time...

God, I want to cry.

[Hoyt]

15. Sad, for sure.

[orangecrush]

25. Your last line

Sums it up well.

[3Hotdogs]

14. I've been trying to get a handle on some of this. I feel sorry for people who lost loved ones.

And many got money from it. Some got a lot of money from it. Nothing wrong with that.


But why doesn't anyone get money when their loved one dies? Why was their loved one's death special?

My father was a good man. Served in the Navy, WW II. He died of throat cancer from smoking. I didn't get anything. More people die from smoking each year than did on 9/11. That is also a tragedy. Why don't they get money or national sympathy?

Car accidents from alcoholism.

Shootings --- My local N.J. newspaper has around 7 shooting deaths per week.



Maybe its the enormity of the happening, all at once. I don't know.


But simply, I've had enough of 9/11.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

17. :Hugs:

:Hugs:

[3Hotdogs]

19. Thanks.

[BigmanPigman]

16. "What about the fucking Saudis?"

is what I have been bitching about for 20 years.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. I hope we aren't the only ones.

[diane in sf]

20. Don't forget Cheney, bush, Halliburton, PNAC, and the noxious "patriot" act. In my opinion it was a

LIHOP or MIHOP event. So useful to the Repugs in power and their pet corporations. We rained death on Iraq and Afghanistan for no real reason other than military contractor profits for 20 years.

Now Ron DeathSentence and Abbot in Texas are killing around 3000 people every two weeks with their homicidal Covid behavior. And no one is prosecuting them.

[Renew Deal]

21. So, I had a meeting with them and they wanted to make sure you were told

to remember 9/11.

[Polly Hennessey]

23. I had enough about 15 years ago. I find it

strange that people want to relive that terrible day. We will not forget it but do we need to be beat over the head every September 11. I wonder who actually sits in front of their TV and watches it played over and over. My first thought when it happened was here is the opportunity for the republicans to start a war and ruin the economy. Sure enough it was the perfect storm for Bush and Cheney.

[orangecrush]

24. THANK YOU!

for expressing my exact feelings.

[caraher]

26. Yes

I posted this elsewhere this morning:

Among all the 20-year 9/11 remembrances and reminiscences, a dominant slogan is, "Never forget." That always struck me as more sinister than profound, because it is so non-specific regarding what we are to remember. Is it simply that we should never forget the innocent victims of violence on that day?

Is it a slogan that asks us to endorse organized hatred against other peoples, justify endless war against a noun, and discard inhibitions against torture? Is it a "remembering" that also entails ignoring or forgetting the suffering of people whose lives were ripped apart on days other than 9/11? Is it a pretext for the sacrifice of many of our most dedicated men and women in pursuit of questionable political objectives?

To me, remembering 9/11 is more about hard questions than anything else. Precisely what are we to remember? Yes, we remember those who perished that day, the families and friends they left behind, and the responders who sacrificed their health saving whomever they could. But it never felt like that was all we were being asked to remember, and I also think reflecting on that is part of honoring the victims from that day.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

29. Wow. Better said than I.

[ShazzieB]

44. Yes, yes...

[Hulk]

27. Appreciated ALL the posts.

I might just mention I didn't turn on my TV once today. I don't want to be force-fed to "remember 9-11".

I remember December 7th. I remember sitting in my mechanical drawing class at high school, , and hearing our principal come on over the PA system, and sob as he told us our President had been murdered by an assassin. I remember hearing the news one night and seeing Dr. Martin Luther King murdered on his balcony somewhere back East. I remember watching in horror as Robert Kennedy was murdered on live TV from someplace in California.

I remember being drafted and being sent to the jungles of Vietnam to kill or be killed by Vietnamese people that wanted us to go the hell away.

I remember us going into Iraq and starting another Vietnam over lies and fear....and thinking, my God...here we go again...Vietnam II.

I remember a lot of tragedy in my 73 years. I don't appreciate nor care to comply with fucking corporate moguls telling me how I need to "remember 9-11", like it was some holy day that we need to honor every fucking year from now until the day I die. Fuck them all.

I want to forget 9-11. It has no more meaning for me than December 7th, 80 years ago. Move the fuck on already.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

30. I hear you all to clearly brother.

[AZLD4Candidate]

28. I didn't watch anything about 9/11 today because I don't need to be ordered or instructed

by the US Government, or it's unofficial public relations liaison the news media, how to feel about it.

I spoke my peace on my official campaign website, twitter, and Facebook accounts. It was short, sweet, and to the point.

That's all that needs to be said.

[ymetca]

32. I remember W

looking like a deer caught in headlights while reading to kindergartners.

And I remember W standing on the smoking rubble with a megaphone telling us all to go shopping.

That was a real Bridge on the River Kwai moment for him, if I may say so. Should have brought his "Mission Accomplished" banner with him that day.

The way I look at it, Bin Laden's "crew" chopped the "horns" off the head of "Satan America", and "The Devil" (aka Empire Capitalism) has lurched madly ever since. So much for the so-called "sole superpower".

The coda to all this madness has been, for me at least, knowing they found the sickly old misfit with VHS porn, while the other's painting lousy pictures of his pets.

Finally, with TFG, hopefully, and for all time, here and everywhere, let us pray that we suffer no more from the mass delusion of the Great Leader, The Once and Future King, The Return of the Messiah.

Let's put their "coffins on top of coffins", shall we please? And stop putting our kids into the ground for their sake.

[Aristus]

33. I'm the same.

I’ve spent the day avoiding the histrionic orgy of pseudo-patriotism.

410ad was the Sack of Rome.

476ad was the Fall of Rome.

I estimate we have about fifty years. Our enemies won by turning us against each other…

[IronLionZion]

34. I remember overnight some Americans became "more American" than others

and the rest of us are "less American" or "less patriotic" if we disagree.

[The Unmitigated Gall]

35. 9/11 was a challenge for this country. We failed.

Bin Laden made four predictions for the US after 9/11:
-The US would massively overreact.
-We would attack and bog ourselves down in the Middle East, impoverishing our nation and expending the lives of our soldiers.
-We would abridge and curtail our vaunted freedoms and liberties.
-We would diminish our standing in the world.

Of course, we went on to fulfill each one of those predictions. It’s like the U.S. was a big Jenga tower; OBL knew EXACTLY which block to hit.

It’s a day of mourning for me.

[NBachers]

36. And if Al Gore had been able to claim his rightful post as President of the United States . . .

[littlemissmartypants]

38. The only 911 related video that I was vaguely interested in seeing was Frontline

America After 9/11. Not quite truth laid bare as I had hoped but there was some gratification in seeing the film document what a fool Bush made of himself. Also, how corrupt Powell turned out to be when he supposedly had a bulletproof reputation. Instead he squandered all the good will and public support he enjoyed at the altar of a party boy drunkard who really never should have been president in the first place.

[KS Toronado]

39. Truth be known.....

The Military Industrial Complex is behind making sure this country stays mad/upset at foreigners.
They can't make any money promoting "We are the World"

[Joelteply]

40. I'm glad to find so many people feel like I do

I’ve felt guilty for feeling this exact way for twenty years. Every patriotic tribute, every trumped up celebration of troops I knew all along shouldn’t be there and we’re dying for no good cause at all, just pawns for profit. I haven’t been able to say much to anyone. This is a relief.

[Jon King]

41. Agreed, it was a national humiliation of failed intelligence and response.

I get why the loved ones would mourn the day, just like any loved ones mourn the day their person died, no matter the cause.

But 9-11 is a national embarrassment. Bush had the intelligence report on his desk and ignored it. The response was ridiculous...lets invade Iraq, lets try to empire build in Afghanistan, lets make 90 year olds take their shoes off and be searched. Lets spend trillions on crap wars and security theater instead of rebuilding our infrastructure and showing the world our way is superior to the terrorists.

Frankly 9-11 should not be commemorated, its like attracting attention to the complete failure of our President at the time and our response like a rabid 6 year old child throwing a tantrum.

[greytdemocrat]

45. Let's not forget who did this.

It wasn't President Bush.

It wasn't President Clinton.

It was Islamic scum that hate the West and
the US in particular.

Twist it all you want, that is the truth.

[ShazzieB]

46. I am in love with this whole thread!

I can't express what a relief it is to find out I'm not the only one who feels this way!

Thanks, Tom Yossarian Joad, for the o.p., and thanks, everyone else who commented, for letting me know I'm not alone.

[electric_blue68]

47. TYJ, I think I get your #4 post. caraher you have important...

observations and questions...

It's difficult to put into words...

I might have watched the full (or most of the) reading of the names the first time. I watch, listen to some of it each year.

Maybe in most cases you have to be a NYC'r, a North or Upper Middle NJian, the county above NYC line, nearby part of lower Connecticut...

I'm a born & bred NYC'r, I worked a lot around Lower Manhattan, and I spent about 50 weeks working in
The South Tower 2 on the 73rd floor NE corner office decades back. The views were incredible.
People made fun of The Towers (I kind of did, too at first), but I grew to love them.

I think it was so unexpected to most people that this could happen, plus the loss in 4 fell swoops (NY, DC, PA) within a couple of hours (or less) that took so many lives.

When I turned against the Vietnam War some time in '67 I found it hard to be totally comfortable with the American Flag. I do remember after RFK's assassination I taped my 48 star one upside down in my window for months.
I get why some African Americans in particular (other POC, too) have mixed feelings etc. Their struggles have concerned me for decades, and added to my uneasiness with our flag.

So after 9/11 I didn't wear a little flag pin but made a
long red, white, and blue strand of lanyard/gimp of every stitch I knew how to do hang off my tote bag.

Yeah, I was more for the Afghanistan War, than not.
I was totally against the Iraq War, and protested both in DC, and here in NYC.

I visited our NYC site for 10+ years almost straight every 9/11 evening. I participated in the massive meeting of people discussing, and voting on the designs of The NYC Memorial. I finally got to see The Survivor Tree (a callary pear) in bloom in Spring '16. I remember those little trees in the WTC Plaza.

Not watching the ceremonies is your perogative, and you acted accordingly.

But some of us take some of kind of comfort in it. I'm
glad they still do it.

[snpsmom]

48. I spent the day trying to avoid the coverage

and mostly succeeded -- not entirely, though.

The hatred and jingoism; the giant omnipresent militarized police state that has emerged in response to it; the fact that thousands and thousands of innocents died, both on that day, and in the wars we waged in the name of revenge for that day; these are what I remember now.

[Maeve]

49. I avoided the news yesterday

I only have to close my eyes to see the pictures again...I don't need anyone else to remind me, either